I'm open to correction on this, but it looks like the problem is that a modified version of the kernel module toshiba_acpi is required for toshset to run. Although toshiba_acpi is present in Ubuntu 10.10 (with kernel 2.6.35), it seems it is the unmodified version, and it needs to be patched. Unfortunately I don't know how to do this - if anyone does please let us know!

The older kernels, eg 2.6.32 (as used in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid) used the patched driver, and this allowed toshset to run.

A work-around solution is simply to use the older kernel. Not an ideal situation, of course, but until such time as the patched toshiba_acpi is included in the latest kernel, using the older kernel will enable the use of toshset.

Easiest way to do it is just install kernel 2.6.32-25-generic through Synaptic. Everything still works as normal (at least on my system it does), but most importantly, toshset works with this kernel.

I have been able to set the fan speed and transreflective mode using toshset after patching and building the toshiba_acpi module for the current maverick kernel (2.6.35-22-generic). The acpitool program is also able to set the fan and lcd brightness levels. So the patch seems to enable toshset without affecting the other acpi functionality.

After building the tosbiba_acpi.ko module I just copied it over to the current kernel module lib directory. I'll have to see if there is an official method for substituting a single modified module to a existing kernel build.

I'm looking into using Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) and a launchpad PPA package to enable the patched toshiba_acpi modules are updated along with kernel updates. Otherwise the procedure might need to be repeated for each ubuntu kernel update.

The quick and dirty instructions are below, most of the instructions come from the Ubuntu KernelCustomBuild webpage. I might have missed something, please post any corrections.
1) Get ubuntu kernel source package and kernel building tools packages (I had all these installed, so I don't know what is required)
2) #> cd /usr/src
3) #> sudo wget http://schwieters.org/toshset/toshiba_acpi-current.patch
4) #> sudo tar -jxf linux-source-2.6.35.tar.bz2
5) #> cd linux-source-2.6.35
6) #> sudo patch -p1 < ../toshiba_acpi-current.patch
7) #> cd drivers/platform/x86/
8) I only wanted to build the toshiba_acpi module. So I commented out all the other modules from the Makefile. Using sudo make a backup copy of the Makefile, then edit the Makefile to only build the toshiba_acpi module. Just put # in front
of the other modules.
9) sudo make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` M=`pwd` modules
10) sudo make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` M=`pwd` modules_install
11) sudo depmod -a
12) Driver should be into /lib/modules/*/extra/toshiba_acpi. rmmod and modprobe
to load the new module. Rebooting should work as well.

Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to put this together.

Just a few suggestions that may help other newbies like me:

For step 1)
get the kernel source package:
#> sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.35
get the kernel building source packages:
#> sudo apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev fakeroot wget bzip2
(maybe not all these packages are necessary, but I don't think it will harm to install them)

I've been trying to compile this patch into the 2.6.37rc2 mainline kernel but have run into a few issues. The reason for trying to get it up and running with .37 to resolve the well documented lag/speed issues on Maverick with the .35 kernel.

So I patched the .37 toshiba.acpi with the link above and tried to compile:

Compiles clean, inserts and loads up but I cant get access to toshet. What is interesting is I can cat /proc/toshiba
dsmith@pez:/usr/src/linux-2.6.37-rc2/drivers/platform/x86$ cat /proc/toshiba
1.1 0xfcff 0.0 0.45 0x418e 0x00

Well I'm no kernel hacker and am not really sure what Im doing past here... any ideas?

This problem has been diagnosed to death: People dropped the experimental toshiba patch from the kernel, intending to see if this breaks something for anyone. People noticed that toshset is broken on their machines. People notice that it is trivial to apply the patch (excep the needed change for .37 kernels).

Would people please just consider putting the patch back in for 10.04 / 10.10?

Yes, Thomas, I fully agree. Does anyone have an idea where else to complain. This has been going on for half a year. It is painful enough if something does not work. But is a working solution is dropped, I really lack any understanding. No wonder, my wife thinks I am stupid to use Linux. In Windows everything's so easy, at least as far as hardware support is concerned.

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 644898

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

Thank you! Your autobuilder works! I've added your ppa and I can see there is an update (from 0.0.2, which I have, to 0.0.3) however I can't seem to install the update. The update manager gives me this error:

Requires installation of untrusted packages
The action would require the installation of packages from unauthenticated sources.
Details: toshiba-acpi-fix

Are you sure, that you need _this_ fix? It fixes only the problem with toshset. I think it's better to create a new bug report and describe your problem in it, because it looks like that your laptop uses another acpi model which isn't handled by toshiba_acpi kernel module.

I am testing Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric" beta. (So far so good). I would like to test the patch for Toshset. We need an update to toshiba-acpi-fix kindly provided by keks-n in his ppa, for Oneiric. Is that possible please?

They finally removed BKL in 2.6.39 version of the kernel. I've replaced calls to lock/unlock_kernel by a mutex and now it seems to compile and work fine with 2.6.39 and 3.0.0. I've uploaded it to ppa, so new version should be available soon for oneiric. I keep the old version for natty because it seems to be stable with this version of Ubuntu.

I'm just coming into this discussion so please be kind. It seems from what I've seen that the upstream developers think that this issue should be fixed in the current kernel (possibly earlier but let's ignore that for now). It looks from comment #103 that the problem still exists in the current (Precise) kernel.

Has anyone from this thread / bug tried to engage with the upstream developer(s) to let them know this issue still exists?

I've been banging my head over this thing for the past 3 years I've tried compiling from a few suggested step by step guides, and I'm a total noob on everything linux. So, finally came back to this thread to see #84 and omg it worked like a charm !!
I can finally use my 3g modem on my Toshiba Tecra R10-10W - Toshset now works perfectly

Hi!
using a toshiba Portege M400 with ubuntu 11.10, after installing toshiba-acpi-fix and rebooting,
with a second monitor as extended desktop,
I can still not increase the brightness of the lcd display, which is very low.
Also:
alobo@alobo-laptop:~$ sudo toshset -lcd 2
SciFeature:action: error setting lcd brightness
SciSet returned: FAILURE
lcd brightness: super-bright

This issue is still present on my Toshiba Qosmio F60 with Ubuntu 12.10. I need to enable wireless from within Windows 7. Fn+F8 just enables/disables the wireless using soft block under Ubuntu, while the LED light stays on. Wireless still needs to be enabled from within Windows for the soft block to work.

Mine fails regardless of which kernel I use. I've gone all the way back to 2.6.38.8 and up including the most current 3.8 and I think it doesn't have anything to do with the kernel or Nikitas patch as other users have posted their success with most of the kernels I tried. I think the problem is the machine. My Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7809 has InsydeH2O BIOS v1.9, the last update I can find for my model. This webpage http://memebeam.org/toys/ToshibaAcpiDriver specifies this failure error and says that it is due to non-Toshiba BIOS. I am also unable to get Omnibook patch to work either, which is supposed to work on Phoenix BIOS on the Toshibas.

If someone has gotten this to work with the InsydeH2O BIOS I'd like to hear from you. Otherwise I'm afraid I've done all the troubleshooting I can do, and will either have to live with my fan running at full speed once the initial threshold is crossed, or I'm going to have to put Windows back on.

I was impressed to find that against one of the kernels in my Ubuntu Gnome Saucy (13.10) the kernel 3.9.0-7 the patched toshiba_acpi does indeed build and function, and although the hardware button doesn't work, I can turn on transflective mode from the command line with...
sudo toshset -trmode on
and back off with...
sudo toshset -trmode off

Sadly, with either of the 3.11 kernels (also installed) the build fails, and below is a typical error from the build process...

I can't seem to find a way to enable Wireless on my Toshiba Qosmio F60 from Ubuntu (even 13.04) once it is disabled from within Windows. The LED buttons to enable Wireless, Mute, Play/Pause, Eco Mode, Touchpad block/unblock don't work either. It does not even generate any X Event. :-(

I'm sorry if this is a newbie question. I searched the file and what I found was: PDE(inode)->data, do you mean to just replace that with PDE_DATA(inode)->data??

That's what I did and I'm still getting error
/tmp/tmp.qvjlE83cZN/toshiba_acpi.c: In function ‘version_proc_open’:
/tmp/tmp.qvjlE83cZN/toshiba_acpi.c:827:61: warning: dereferencing ‘void *’ pointer [enabled by default]
/tmp/tmp.qvjlE83cZN/toshiba_acpi.c:827:61: error: request for member ‘data’ in something not a structure or union
/tmp/tmp.qvjlE83cZN/toshiba_acpi.c:828:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]

Thanks @Roberto Grassi!, that did the trick.
I still haven't figured out how to enable the volume wheel that comes with my laptop, but that's another issue.
I got it to work in a 3.10-2-686-pae Debian.